Data Points: Ad Play

While football fans stock up on chicken wings and big-screen TVs in preparation for Super Bowl XLVII, marketers have their eye on the commercials that will play out on advertising's biggest arena of the year. The price of entry has soared more than 60 percent over the past decade, to $3.5 million for a 30-second spot, and is expected to increase even more this year. So why do advertisers keep ponying up? Simply, there's no other event that draws the audience of the Super Bowl, which was watched by 111 million people in 2011, and those people also happen to be richer than the average consumer and really like the commercials to boot.